Habs trim down roster to 26 players.

Not many surprises with this wave of cuts, as the Habs get closer to the season opener in Carolina.

the following nine players will have to clear waivers before reporting to Hamilton:
Goalie
Yann Danis
Forwards
Jonathan Ferland
Corey Locke
Duncan Milroy
Cory Urquhart
Defensemen
Jean-Philippe Côté
Jamie Rivers
Mathieu Biron
Andrew Archer

Expect Montreal to lose Danis, and possibly Côté.

18 players will report directly to Hamilton without having to pass through waivers. Notable players going back down to the farm team are Sergei Kostitsyn, and Matt D'Agostini, who was told to be on the doorstep of the NHL in a press conference held by coach Guy Carbonneau last week.

Back to the Habs training camp. GM Bob Gainey has mentionned that Halak and Price will be competing for the back up spot on the Habs roster. The other will become Hamilton's starter. We can safely determine that a goalie will be cut leaving us 25 players. A NHL team roster is generally composed of 23 players. This leaves 2 players to be cut amongst the 14 forwards and 9 defensemen left. Its safe to say that at least one defensemen will be cut. Gainey can afford to cut a forward having Mark Streit in the lineup who has proven last year that he can play up front on the third or fourth line. Will Garth Murray be sent packing to leave room for some younger talent?

Gear up for the season ladies and gentlemen because it's right around the corner!

Canadiens lock up Price...

The Montreal Canadiens have signed former world junior star Carey Price to a three-year contract. As per club policy, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Price will join the Canadiens AHL farm team in Hamilton today.
The Bulldogs have four games left in the regular season.
-TSN

No big surprise here, thankfully, he didn't pull a Jack Johnson.

And, oh, if you're wondrin' how much he'll be putting in his wallet, it's going to be around $650-750 thousand.

The plan is for Price to get some playing time down in Hamilton, likely so he can know what it's like since he'll almost certainly be playing there next year, and, to keep Jaroslav Halak on the Canadiens' roster.

Yann Danis has played well enough to salvage the no. 1 job with Halak up in Montreal.

Phillipe Sauve and Cedric Desjardins each backed up Yann Danis, but none received any significant playing time.

Sauve, a former Avalanche turned Flame traded to Phoenix, was acquired from the Boston Bruins in a "loan" deal, which sent enforcer Aaron Downey to the Bruins' minor league affiliate.

Carey Price's spectacular international play has Habs fans drooling, however, all you guys can forget about him being here next season or the season after (yup, you too Jacques Demers), he is expected to be the Canadiens starting goaltender come the 2009 Centennial Anniversary season of the Montreal Canadiens which will include plenty of interesting suprises: the all-star game, the draft, the world juniors, a Habs movie and likely Carey Price and our Russian friends Alexei Emelin and Pavel Valentenko.

The Habs are set for a bright future.

-There's also speculation that Bob Gainey will step down as GM of my dear Canadiens, there is no source to prove this, but it's going around on the airwaves...